DAILY DIGITAL EDIT – 02.03.2018

The Daily Digital News Edit, bringing you the top 3 digital news stories of the day.

Facebook ends its experiment with the alternative ‘explore’ news feed

Head of Facebook’s News Feed product said that Facebook has decided against the separate feeds after polling users, explaining that “People don’t want two separate feeds. In surveys, people told us they were less satisfied with the posts they were seeing, and having two separate feeds didn’t actually help them connect more with friends and family.”

*The change to News Feed caused quite a lot of alarm for brands that use the platform. It will be interesting to see if they revert back to pre-split News Feed strategy. Whilst Facebook has abandoned this change on the platform, it seems they still plan on continuing with their mission to create a platform which promotes meaningful interactions. *

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Twitter wants help measuring healthy online interactions

In a tweetstorm on Thursday, the Twitter CEO said his company is searching for ways to root out trolling, bullying, hate speech, and political manipulation on the network. And in order to do that, Twitter wants to better understand the nature, or “health,” of conversations on its platform. Through Dorsey’s Tweets, the company has put out a Request for Proposals (RFP) for “Twitter Health Metrics.”

*So far, it seems that Twitter’s approach to tackling abuse on the platform has been more reactive, instead of proactive. Will opening this up to external input further help the platform better solve the issue?*

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Gucci employs VR and AR experiences for spring campaign

Gucci has introduced a new digital campaign for spring 2018, featuring scannable ads, as well as AR and VR experiences. At 52 selected stores, customers will also receive tickets; these give them access to VR devices, which show a 360-degree panorama of the campaign artwork. Campaign illustrations will also appear in magazines and newspapers, which are scannable using the Gucci app to unlock 3D pages with augmented reality effects.

*Another example of how the fashion industry is incorporating new technology to provide an experiential element to their customers. For the moment, it seems to be mainly high end brands, it’ll be interesting to see if this filters down to more high street, affordable brands.*